The Three Bodies of the Buddha

How did the teachings of the Buddha prepare us to continue
without a living Buddha to guide us? How were we expected to
become a light unto ourselves? How could the Dharma become
our light? These were the issues that followers of the Dharma
were confronted with following the death of Sakyamuni Buddha.
In trying to answer these questions, however, Buddhism would
diverge along two great traditions.
One of these groups would refer to itself as the Mahayana or
"Larger Vehicle," and emphasize the activity of the Buddha
to guide all beings to quiescence, serenity, or calm.
The Mahayana helps us to see that the treasure of the Dharma
and the light of the Buddha are still a part of our world by
telling us that the Buddha need not necessarily be before us.
They remind us of the following words left by the Buddha:

Disciples, if a disciple of mine takes hold of the hem
of my robe and follows me, even if he were to trace my
footsteps, if his mind is filled with desire and is in
disorder, he will be distant from me, and I shall also
be distant from him. The reason for this is that he will
not perceive the Dharma.

And he who does not perceive the
Dharma does not perceive me. On the other hand, even if
a disciple is separated from me by thirty-odd miles, if
he has freed himself from desire and if he is of a true
mind, he will stand beside me.

The reason for this is that
he perceives the Dharma; by perceiving the Dharma he perceives
me.

The Mahayana helps us to re-affirm the truth taught by Sakyamuni
Buddha that a Buddha can continue to captivate, educate, inspire
and motivate us to discover the grand vision of the meaning
of human life through the Dharma. Using the voice of the Buddha,
the concept of the three-bodies of the Buddha is explained.

O sons of good family, the three bodies of
the Tathagata are the Body of Transformation, the Body of
Enjoyment, and the Body of the Dharma. The Body of Transformation
is the earthly, manifested body of the Buddha, born in this
world for the sake of human salvation, engaged in the pursuit
of various paths and in the realization of enlightenment.
The Buddha with the Body of Transformation strove in the
career of teaching, in acquiring the power of knowing people’s
individual capacities as well as fitting times and environments,
and in revealing his physical body before them. The Tathagata
whom you have known through your eyes is this Body of Transformation,
which may have been varied according to each individual’s
perceptions.

Next, the Body of Enjoyment is the body of
skillful means, which is intended to avoid a direct teaching
of the absolute truth. It is also intended to eliminate the
sense of pleasure or dread from the mind that man incurs
because of his attachment to the body of flesh. This body
came into being as the result of the original vow and the
insight of the Buddha.

Lastly, the Body of the Dharma is the
Dharma itself, the body in its essential nature and hence
the ultimate ground of the Bodies of the Buddha, in which
the absolute truth and the insight into the truth are not
yet differentiated into two. The first two Bodies, namely
those of Transformation and Enjoyment, are temporary manifestations
derived from the Dharmakaya (Body of the Dharma). Therefore,
the entire Buddhist doctrine is to be included in or attributed
to the Body of the Dharma.

Just as Sakyamuni got up from his experience of Enlightenment
to turn the Wheel of Dharma, the above passage helps to give
us the sense that the Buddha comes to us. In the case of the
Body of Transformation, the Buddha is "born for the sake of
human salvation." The Body of Enjoyment makes vows to bring
us to Enlightenment, and the Body of the Dharma is the Dharma
itself that manifests the other two forms to bring us to Enlightenment.
This dynamic aspect of the Buddha is also expressed in the
title of Tathagata, a term that literally means, "come from thusness."

This
is the grand vision of the Mahayana. In this
grand vision, not only are we all capable of becoming a Buddha
ourselves, we are moved to see that Enlightened activity is
constantly moving to Enlighten all of us. We are all embraced
within the truth of the Dharma, and in this embrace are allowed
to see both the ultimate equality of life as well as its uniqueness.